"No, sir!" again voted the majority.
"Perhaps I shall have to ask Miss Millweed for the names of other kinds of lilies," added the principal, with a very pleasant smile.
"None of them!" exclaimed the crowd, encouraged by the cheerful expression of the captain.
"None of them?"
"Lily Bristol!" called Luke Bennington. "I put in another name, but that is what the fellows mean."
"Yes, sir!" cried the majority.
Captain Gildrock improved this opportunity to say something about the influence of female society, and especially of young ladies. If Beech Hill were not a school of mechanic arts, he should be in favor of having as many young ladies as young gentlemen on its roll of pupils. He was in favor of co-education, whereat Mr. Bentnick shook his head, and seemed to be uneasy in his seat, though Mr. Darlingby showed a disposition to clap his hands. The captain was an old-fashioned man, he said, but he hoped he had modern and progressive ideas. He was not in favor of "pretty girls."
At this point about half a dozen of the students gave something like a suppressed groan. The principal paused, the dissentients wished they had said nothing; but he did not add a word. He seemed to feel that they had as much right to express themselves in this manner as to applaud, or express themselves in other ways.
"I don't believe in pretty girls as such," he continued, "because they monopolize the sole attention of young men, to the exclusion of others even more worthy who are personally less attractive. But I hardly expect young gentlemen to adopt my views on this subject before they have lived to be as old as I am. When you have an opportunity, boys, bestow some attention upon the 'wallflowers.'"